The present invention relates to an aiming device for any weapon that fires a projectile at a target which is in the line of sight from the weapon. In particular, the invention relates to a laser aiming device which shines a laser beam on the target and enables a marksman to preview the area of anticipated impact of the projectile.
Aiming a weapon is often difficult. The target sighting device, i.e. gunsight of the weapon must be placed at the marksman's eye, and especially with hand held weapons, such as rifles, or the like, this may not be a comfortable or steady position for holding or firing the weapon. Further, the usual procedures of sighting on a target and the designs of standard sighting devices greatly restrict the marksman's field of view of the target, and, on occasion, time must be spent to locate the target in the sighting device. Additionally, a marksman may have to close one eye to adequately sight on the target, greatly restricting his field of view and rendering him unable to know about events taking place in his immediate vicinity. Conventional aiming devices do not permit the marksman or operator of the weapon to preview precisely the impact area of the weapon. They only permit the marksman to visualize the general field of the target. Thus, aiming efficiency is relatively low. Aiming efficiency will only improve with the help of specialized equipment, such as radar, which requires additional experienced personnel for its operation. Further still, weapons often must be fired under poor visibility conditions, e.g. at night, at obscure targets and under unfavorable weather conditions. Additionally, great speed of aiming and ease of aiming are both hard to attain with conventional aiming devices.
Conventional weapon aiming devices are either optical and use front and rear sights, or they are infrared, or they are optical and mechanical or electromechanical as in larger guns, like tank guns, or they are electronic as used with non-manually controlled weapons such as antiaircraft weapons, particularly those controlled by radar. Each of the various conventional techniques of aiming a weapon has at least some of the above described drawbacks.
One technique for overcoming the foregoing difficulties encountered in aiming a weapon is to project a laser beam or other appropriate light beam onto the target. When the target is illuminated by the laser or light beam, the trigger of the weapon is operated. If the laser or other light beam is properly zeroed in on the aiming point of the weapon, the projectile fired by the weapon will strike where the light is shining.
One previously tried application of this technique consists of nonmovably affixing a laser tube to the barrel of a rifle. The laser beam is initially zeroed on the aiming point of the rifle. Once the laser beam has been aimed, its aiming point cannot be readjusted. The operating mechanism for activating the laser is located away from the trigger of the weapon. After the marksman has shown the laser beam to aim the weapon, the marksman then moves his hand to and operates the trigger of the weapon. The foregoing device has proven unacceptable because the unadjustably aimed laser beam has not always shown precisely on the target. This is due in part to the shocks to which a weapon is exposed in use which may shift the aiming point of the laser beam. Further, when the marksman moves his hand from the laser operating mechanism to the weapon trigger, he sometimes throws the aiming point of the weapon off the target area.